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Plans to repurpose the Engineering Library draw student outcry

May 22, 2015

As word circulated at the end of spring semester about the repurposing of the Engineering Library, some students voiced their opposition to the remodel, which would see the library turned into office space.

Dean of the College of Engineering, Leo Kempel, said the plan is to convert the library into office space that will allow them to hire and house more faculty. He said the project will create room for 25 additional offices and space for 120 graduate students, allowing for a wider range of courses and smaller class section sizes, at the loss of study space.

But if Jovanka Koprivica, a materials science and engineering junior, has anything to do with it, the project will be stopped and the Engineering Library will remain as is.

“I would hope that the large group of planners and engineers in charge would be able to find another cost effective way to add more office space to the building, but apparently this (Engineering Library closure) is the only option in their minds,” Koprivica said. “The university is constantly growing so I would personally think adding on to the building would be the best in the long run. I feel like if they take this space away and don’t replace it with something just as good, or better, then clearly the university does not have its students’ best interests in mind, and that is disgusting to me.”

The working budget for the project is $7.5 million, Infrastructure Planning and Facilities project representative Todd Wilson said.

Koprivica started a petition to save the Engineering Library, arguing the library is a valuable resource for engineering students. Her petition has 1,289 signatures as of May 22 in support of keeping the library as is, many of the signatures coming from current or graduated engineering students. 

Chelsea Bridson, a computer science alumna, said the library is one of the only spaces inside the Engineering Building where students can sit and study between class. Bridson said she believes the closing of the library will exacerbate the growing issue of overcrowding in the Engineering Building. In addition to studying, many students find the library to be a good space for group work.

For Abdulsalam Alali, a chemical engineering sophomore, the library became his second home last year as he spent most of his time there doing homework and studying. Alali also said he made use of the private rooms with white boards inside for group work. He said he can only hope that with the subtraction of the Engineering Library comes the addition of an alternative space.

Koprivica went all the way to the top with her petition, presenting it to the dean of the College of Engineering. Even if her petition fails to save the library, Koprivica believes officials are now well aware that if the library is closed, new space must be provided to students for studying and group work. Shortly after Koprivica presented her petition, the dean sent an email to all engineering students confirming the plans to go ahead and repurpose the library.

The total undergraduate enrollment for the College of Engineering has grown 75 percent during the past six years, associate dean of the College of Engineering Thomas Wolff said. Many have questioned why the plan isn’t to simply expand the building. 

“If you want to build a new wing of the building, minimally it’s going to take, if every miracle in the world were to happen, three years,” Kempel said. “Realistically, it’s going to take more like five to ten years. We cannot expand the faculty in (the) near term by building new buildings. The system doesn’t allow it.”

Work is being done to replace the study and work collaboration space, Kempel said. Officials are looking at opening conference rooms to students, installing narrow tables in wide hallways to allow students space to work between class and repurposing rooms inside the building to allow for student work space. 

“In the end, our goal is to make sure our students have every opportunity to meet the educational objectives they have,” Kempel said. “Although the library won’t be available for students, we will work as hard as possible to make sure there is space, and it’s as convenient as we can make it.”

Wilson said if the project moves along as planned, it will begin in early November, be completed in mid-August 2016 and be available for use by the following fall semester. The library is currently home to about 100,000 bound volumes, some of which will be moved to the Main Library, while others will be made available online.

In the initial article, it was incorrectly stated that the offices will provide space for 20 graduate students. The correct number is 120, and the article has been changed to reflect this.

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